Court Rules on Muslim Cleric's Hearing

Published 12:58 pm, Monday, April 25, 2016

A federal appeals court has declined to review a decision by three of its judges that hearings for a jailed Muslim activist must be open to the public.

The federal government had requested the review, contending that open deportation hearings for Rabih Haddad and others suspected of links to terrorism would compromise the Justice Department's terror probe.

The ruling Wednesday by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals stems from lawsuits filed last year by several Detroit area newspapers, the American Civil Liberties Union and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., seeking access to Haddad's hearings.

The decision contradicts an October ruling by the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia that such hearings could be closed to the public, the Detroit Free Press reported in a Thursday story.

Attorneys predicted the dispute would wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

"The stage is really set for a showdown in Washington over which appeals court is right," said Herschel Fink, an attorney for the Free Press, one of the newspapers that filed suit.

The Justice Department is deciding whether to appeal Wednesday's ruling, a spokesman said.

Haddad, 42, an Ann Arbor resident and Lebanese citizen, was arrested Dec. 14, 2001, the same day the suburban Chicago offices of the Global Relief Foundation were raided. Haddad is co-founder of the charity, which federal authorities accuse of funneling money to al-Qaida.

Haddad's early hearings were closed to the public, sparking the lawsuits. A three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled the hearings must be opened in August, though some parts of subsequent hearings were closed.

Neither Haddad nor Global Relief has been charged with a terror-related crime. Haddad has said the group is strictly a humanitarian organization.